Ringling Bros Circus Leafleting Schedule
San Francisco Bay Area
August - September 2014

Please Attend Educational Outreach Events - Click Here for ScheduleYour participation is needed. Please join us to educate patrons about the inherent cruelty of using animals in circuses. For more information call 650.248.4489650.248.4489.

Signs & leaflets are provided at each leafleting.

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BACKGROUND

In November 2011 Ringling agreed to pay a $270,000 civil penalty to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to settle claims that Ringling violated the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), the Federal law that provides protection for animals used by circuses. This was the largest civil penalty ever paid by a circus for violation of the AWA.

A lawsuit against Ringling Bros. for violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) revealed evidence that Ringling routinely beats and severely confines elephants. Although Ringling got the case dismissed due to a technicality (the merits of the case were never ruled on), internal Ringling documents and Ringling employees' testimonies confirmed what activists have known for years:

Elephants are chained 16 to 22.5
hours a day,
often much longer when they are on the train. Video available here.

Baby elephants are forcibly taken
from their mothers
to be broken and forced to do unnatural tricks for the circus. The "breaking
process" involves:

(1) Taking baby elephants from their mothers while they
are still nursing;

(2) Isolating babies from all other elephants;

(3) Tying up babies so they are severely restricted in
their movement and not even able to turn around; and

(4) Hitting babies with bullhooks. According to
Ringling employee testimony, one baby elephant was tied up for four months and
only untied for 40 minutes a day to be trained. A truly traumatic ordeal for
little baby elephants and their mothers. In 2009 a former Ringling elephant
trainer provided PETA with photos he took of the training sessions. They are
viewable on video.
Video "Ringling Deprives Elephants of Life" is available
here.

Ringling abuses all animals they use - additional
videos are available showing how Ringling treats the tigers, horses and
camels.